The Ministry Collaborative Podcast: Highlights from Our First Year
Program Staff Jennifer Maxell and Adam Mixon continue their conversation with Gigi "Dr. G" Khanyezi about community practices that create healing, the transformative power of incarnation, and what it means to create a culture that doesn't trample emotions....
Program Staff Adam Mixon and Jennifer Maxell speak with Gigi "Dr. G" Khanyezi about God has created us with the apparatus to heal, the importance of decolonizing our faith, and why community is critical in our pathway toward health....
Holy Week is upon us, and we are into another news cycle fraught with social and political unrest – threats of bloodbaths and government shutdowns – wars and rumors of war – oh yeah and allergies. And to top things off, many of us are...
Content Curator Adam Mixon continues his conversation with the Revs. Charles Maxell (Breakthrough Fellowship, Smyrna, GA) and Laura Murray (Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation) about the encouragement of the small things, how closeness needs community, and the temptation of the "pastoral pivot". This conversation is...
As we continue our series "Faith Overflowing with Hope", Content Curator Adam Mixon speaks with the Revs. Laura Murray (Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation) and Charles Maxell (Breakthrough Fellowship, Smyrna, GA) about the challenge of church programming for formation, the importance of nearness - both...
We kick off our six week series "Faith Overflowing with Hope" with TMC Staff Adam Borneman and Adam Mixon in conversation with the Rev. Tim Soerens (The Parish Collective) about getting out of the business of projects, the meaningful lessons of failure, and the importance...
Ministry Collaborative program staff Amy Valdez Barker and Adam Mixon continue their conversation with the Rev. Melanie Marsh (Riviera Presbyterian , Miami) about the challenge of living into your humanity as a pastor, the importance of admitting what we don't know, and the role her...
Ministry Collaborative program staff Adam Mixon and Amy Valdez Barker speak with the Rev. Melanie Marsh (Riviera Presbyterian , Miami) about her call to a church where she was the first female pastor (and the first person of color), her tumultuous arrival in a divided...
Ministry Collaborative program staff (Adam Borneman, Adam Mixon, Beth Daniel, Mark Ramsey) discuss our wariness around grace in community; the offensive nature of grace's radical message; and the need for church leaders to receive grace ourselves, since it's all we have to offer. Read the original...
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I was the Facilitator for the first New York City cohort, and at the time, I was working in theological education on Christian leadership formation, so it seemed like a natural fit. What I discovered, though, was something quite different from my “day job.” While the content and topics of the curriculum was a crucial part of our gatherings, it was the community of mutual care and support that made the content relevant, not the other way around. And second, having three years of strong bonding created an extraordinarily resilient community that, in turn, was able to build up resilience in our leaders. I think every member of my cohort went through significant seasons of both joy and heartache, professionally and vocationally, during our time. And the cohort, in turn, lived out the exhortation of Romans 12:15, “rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep,” with a depth and integrity that I have rarely experienced, and often doing both in the same gathering. It was a privilege and a blessing to me and my own faith and ministry to be their facilitator, and I am eternally grateful to the Ministry Collaborative for calling me to that work!”
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was unique to my particular situation. It was needed, appreciated and healing. It was affirming. Most valuable was the unspoken understanding of what we all were facing in our ministry context. There was a sense that we could finish each other’s sentences. Solidarity and empathy.”
Graduation Date:
May 23, 2021
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was unique to my particular situation. It was needed, appreciated and healing. It was affirming. Most valuable was the unspoken understanding of what we all were facing in our ministry context. There was a sense that we could finish each other’s sentences. Solidarity and empathy.”
Graduation Date:
May 23, 2021
“I truly looked forward to this every week. The discussion topics, activities, and small group conversations were all very rich and meaningful. This experience gave me space to reflect on what’s happening right now in my congregation and community. It helped me to think about what might be next in my own ministry. It offered some very concrete ways I might work on equipping leaders in my congregation. I really enjoyed meeting colleagues from different places, denominations, and contexts–and learning from their experiences and reflections. I also appreciated hearing further conversation and reinforcement in the podcasts.”
Graduation Date:
July 14, 2021
“The experience was, in one word, enriching. It was timely as well. I was at a critical point in my own ministry and this literally breathed life back into me. The time went by so fast that I didn’t even realize two months had passed. To be able to share that type of camaraderie with other preachers, and realize that my struggles are not isolated, was liberating.”
Graduation Date:
March 18, 2021
“It was great to find confirmation and affirmation of my ministry through the voices of other pastors. I particularly enjoyed the focused time on talking about each of us as individuals and pastors, and not so much on what our churches look like.”
Graduation Date:
January 31st, 2020